Rock Pile

Rocktops can be found throughout Crystalia, wherever the earth is rocky and barren. Due to their natural predilection to tunnel, Rocktops are superb miners.

Like many of the Consul's minions, Rocktop society is ruled by strength and size. At the top of thhierarchy stands the mighty Crusher. Dimwitted and brutish, Crushers spend most of their making hours smashing rock to increase the size of the tunnel systems they claim as theirs.

In contrast, Rollers and Bombardiers are surprisingly jovial creatures. Relishing in mischief and mayhem they delight in the noise and spectacle as rocks, Heroes, or anything weaker than them are smashed, smushed, crushed, crunched, or exploded.

Below them all are the hapless Slowpokes. Simple creatures who, if they had a say in it, would be perfectly content moving rocks from one side of a cave to another and back again.

The Rock Pile is... complicated. The basic IDEA is solid; when most Rock Pile monsters are killed they leaves a Shell behind which can be used as ammo by other monsters from the spawner. The execution is clumsy, as each Shell is actually a new Monster with 2 Hearts, and when Thrown can also suffer damage which can eventually kill it - the problem being that is a LOT of extra Wounds to keep track of, slowing down the game. Also, Throw is pretty weak; it deals 1B Offense for each tile between the thrower and target -and even at max, rolling 4B (2 2/3) or 6B (4) is not strong. The best use of Shell is with the Crusher's Earthquake, as that actually adds +1B STR for each Shell.

The only Rock Top that moves 6 is the Roller; the rest are Movement 5, and all of them are Immune: Knockdown and Slow. Sapphire Minibosses also love this spawner, as it can cure pesky Status Effects. But overall, the Rock Pile is a mixed bag and more complicated than it needs to be.